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Thanks to a recent increase in public support, Troy community organizers and city officials are working with a construction company to give the municipality’s skatepark a facelift.
City Councilor TJ Boswell said residents began expressing support for the park’s improvements in a poll last year. Locals began sending letters to city officials, showing up at council meetings and making donations.
Troy now has $ 75,000 to invest in the project and Boswell expects more funds to come in. Depending on whether city councilors are successful in securing a state grant, the city may have $ 180,000 available to finance the development of the park.
City councilors and committee members from Troy’s fledgling skatepark teamed up with Dreamland Skateparks, an Oregon-based company specializing in concrete skateparks, to undertake the project.
Boswell said organizers plan to split the project into two phases. The first will tackle the construction of a buried bowl at the southern end of the park. The bowl will extend approximately 50 feet and be up to six or eight feet deep. The organizers will use the $ 75,000 they have already raised through donations to fund the work. If there were dollars left, Boswell said builders could start tackling the features of the park’s existing 40-by-90-foot area.
Dreamland employees were due to start work on this phase of the project last week.
In the second construction phase, community organizers will focus on adding functionality to the above ground platform. This work, however, is dependent on the city receiving a grant from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, administered by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Boswell said city officials expected a response on the grant award in late December or January. Dreamland has scheduled construction to begin on this phase next spring.
Kolby Zugg, who helped lead community support for the project and skated the park for years, was delighted to see locals rallying to the improvements. Once the job was done, he considered creating a skateboarding competition that would roll contestants between Troy and other Dreamland parks in Polson and Whitefish.
“You could do it on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday and have a big party at the end,” he said. “It would be cool to have the last contest here, kick here, at the end of the weekend.”
The redesign of the skate park is more than just building a place to do gnarly tricks for Zugg and other community organizers, including Zach McDougall.
“It’s not just about skateboarding, it’s all about humans,” Zugg said. “It would be amazing to bring people to this community.
The skate park improvements are part of a larger push by city officials to redefine Troy’s recreational opportunities. City councilors plan to build the municipality’s paddling pool and develop the pedal park near the Troy museum.
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